Passed CISSP exam on (2018/07/25)

I passed my CISSP exam on 25 July 2018. its one of the happiest days of my Life. prior to studying for this exam i thought this exam was way out of my league and only the "Top Dogs" could do this exam. Im a Network Security Engineer with 9 years Experience. so to anyone who is thinking about going for this exam, you can do it, its just your determination only.

I stared to study on 16 May 2018 and wrote exam on 25 July 2018. that's 2 months and 9 days. i was studying for 4 hours per day during working days and 8 hours during weekends. during this period i had no social life to be precise. i googled on how others conducted their studying and reading sources as well, and i tailored that with respect to my experience and strengths and weakness to the CBK's.

Below is how i went through my reading programs.

1. 1st i watched CISSP CBT Nuggets by Keith Barker. 10 Hours worth of Videos that will give you what CISSP is all about in a very fun and interesting way. Kieth Barker is amazing. After this i knew that this was a very non technical Exam. A mile wide indeed and inch deep.

2. i also read the CISSP Official Study Guide in conjunction with the CISSP official practice test books.

3. Sunflower CISSP crash Cram was there for me not to forget my concepts.

4. After finishing the Official study Guide, i went through Pearson IT CISSP Videos. These are "dry" but you just have to get through them for some stuff that Kieth Barker has not touched on.

4. i took more than 4000 Practice exam questions from Different question banks. Also refaring back to the CISSP Official study guide. Empahsis is on grasping the concepts not cramming the questions. read the Answers explanation and understand why that answer is best in this particular question. you need to be able to drill down to an answer using critical thinking on the CBK's. Cramming will definitely not work for CISSP Exam. YOU NEED TO KNOW THE CONCEPTS.

5. Exam day Came, i sat for it. i got 150 Questions and got a pass mark at the End.

Re: Passed CISSP exam on (2018/07/25)

Congratulations on passing the exam! I recall that feeling of having a HUGE weight taken off my back once I left the exam center with the paper telling me I passed the exam on the first attempt!!! I just sat in the car for a few minutes breathing easier and enjoying the moment. :-)

Re: Passed CISSP exam on (2018/07/25)

Thank you for this breakdown of how you studied and what you studied! I just finished my Security+ test and now I'm getting ready to start studying for the CISSP exam. I will be referring back to your post often!

Congratulations and thanks for taking the time to post your study details.

Re: Passed CISSP exam on (2018/07/25)

I used Sybex CISSP 7th Ed, then the 8th Ed came out so i ended up reading each book twice.

I also bought the Sybex Official Practise tests and in total spent 30 hours doing just tests, in addition to over 100 hours of reading

Don Jones youtube video on Kerberos also really helped.

I was convinced I had failed when the exam stopped at 100 questions!

i agree with Primise Newcomer, that cramming will likely not work for CISSP Exam. you do need to know teh concepts, and remember that is a management exam more often than not. exam technique and understand what the question is asking is important.

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